Potential deals on legislation could keep the Liberal government in power. Liberals and Conservatives are working out a path that could keep the government in power, sources tell CBC News, while Prime Minister Mark Carney continues to downplay the likelihood of a spring election. Asked on Monday whether an election was coming, Carney demurred. “It’s time to do a lot...
The German auto industry is keen on expanding its presence in Canada and is in the midst of discussions, Berlin’s economic minister says. Katherina Reiche, Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, said the Canadian auto sector strategy laid out by Prime Minster Mark Carney last week “is very attractive” for Germany. “I can’t go into detail, but please take the...
The Liberal who unseated Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre from his Ottawa-area riding in the last election is criticizing the government's new return-to-office policy for federal workers. Bruce Fanjoy, who represents the Carleton riding in the House of Commons, says there's no evidence it will boost productivity and warning it will increase pollution. He also says the new policy makes it...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford have discussed the possibility of an early federal election in casual conversations about the importance of a majority mandate to deal with uncertain economic times, according to three sources. The sources said the Progressive Conservative Premier, who has forged a close relationship with the Liberal Leader, offered his opinion that the...
Amid ongoing debate about provincial sovereignty, most Albertans would vote to stay in Canada, according to a new survey from the Angus Reid Institute. Fewer than three in 10 Albertans, 29 per cent, said they would vote for separation if a referendum were held today. Most of those respondents said they are leaning toward that position rather than firmly committed...
Mark Carney holds a significant lead over Pierre Poilievre when voters ponder who would make the best prime minister. Vancouver, BC [February 9, 2026] – The governing Liberal Party remains ahead of all other contenders in Canada’s federal political scene, a new Research Co. poll has found. In the online survey of a representative national sample, 45% of decided voters...
After a prolonged flatline trend, consumer confidence is up for the first time in almost six months. The Bloomberg Nanos Index is largely up on more positive sentiment related to personal finances and job security compared to four weeks ago.
In December 2004 I was sitting in the Official Opposition Leader’s Office and the holder of that office, Stephen Harper, walked in. We were working on an election platform because we expected Paul Martin to spring an election quickly after Peter MacKay and Harper merged their respective parties into the Conservative Party of Canada.
Retired general Wayne Eyre, Canada’s former chief of the defence staff, says this country’s security and sovereignty would be best protected if we possessed our own nuclear weapons and the delivery systems to fire them at whatever targets we deemed in need of vaporization. He didn’t recommend starting a program at once, but said it would be the only real...
British Columbia's government is supporting a private bid to host a new international bank to finance military projects by democratic nations, with Premier David Eby calling Vancouver the "strategic choice" to host it. The Defence, Security and Resilience Bank is intended to finance military projects for members of NATO and its allies. Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto have also been pit
The BC Green Party has announced it will not be renewing an accord with the governing NDP when it expires next month. The deal known as the Co-operation and Responsible Government Accord was intended to stabilize the government with its one-seat majority, while both parties worked on shared goals, but Green leader Emily Lowan says there have been "stalled or...
The GM plant in Oshawa often feels like a mythical place. Long-time residents in the region tell stories of a time when it was a hub of prosperity for tens of thousands of families. They say, when shifts would end, there were so many GM employees that some roads would become one-way streets so workers could drive home in an...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s well-crafted and eloquently delivered speech at Davos has been widely noted, and I want to start by offering some praise of my own. The Prime Minister is right to restate what many have said for years: Canada must become more self-reliant, less dependent and work with like-minded countries to advance our interests. Conservatives are, as always...
Canada stands at a pivotal moment in its AI journey. New research from Strand Partners, conducted on behalf of AWS Canada, reveals that 650,000 Canadian businesses have embraced artificial intelligence—a 33% increase year-over-year that outpaces the global adoption of the internet. With one business adopting AI every three minutes, the momentum is clear. Yet the choices we make today –...
A rogue ambassador to the United States, a new office in Washington for the “Commonwealth of Alberta,” another Mark Carney world tour: we’re just over a month into 2026, and already Canadian diplomacy is headed madly off in all directions. Let’s start with Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, who last week heeded a call that apparently he alone could hear and...
For the first time since his defeat a decade ago, Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper took centre stage this week with a refreshing show of bipartisanship and a call for national unity — a message the country and his party needed to hear. The occasion was Harperpalooza or Harperfest as some Conservative staffers referred to the celebrations, a week’s worth...
The cause was given an exception boost this week. The last week has been a turning point for the Conservative Party of Canada. Its devotees observed the 20th anniversary of the coming to office of Stephen Harper at the head of a reconstructed Conservative party that merged the old Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance/Reform Party. Stephen Harper thus became...
The whole co-operation initiative was obviously a distasteful task to Pierre Poilievre, one that circumstances and strategists have foisted upon him. When he went to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday to talk about it, his opposite number appeared equally sincere. This was a week when talk of co-operation seemed to be breaking out all over Ottawa. But the...
Former prime minister Stephen Harper spoke at an event earlier this week marking the 20th anniversary since forming his Conservative government. The Political Pulse Panel reviews Harper’s comments on Canada’s relationship with the U.S., and his urging for co-operation among all parties amid America’s aggression.
It is doubtful any country has ever been in quite the national security dilemma Canada now finds itself in: with so much land and so few people to defend it; wedged between two expansionist superpowers, one of which was until very recently our best defence against the other, but which has since become more or less aligned with it. The...
The speech heard round the world has had much impact. Mark Carney’s message to Canadians and everyone else has been widely quoted, lauded, analyzed, criticized and described as the most important speech on Canadian foreign policy since Louis St Laurent’s Grey Lecture at the University of Toronto in 1947. In discussing the speech this week with Ben Rowswell, former Canadian...
Every day, it seems, Donald Trump wields his presidential powers to undermine the Western alliance. Within the past week or so he has threatened new tariffs against Canadian aircraft exports, against South Korea and against any country (but principally Mexico) that sells oil to Cuba. And of course, there was his threat in January to annex Greenland and to tariff...
For decades, Canada has been using a secret, expansive, junk-ridden database of suspected terrorists, operated by the United States government. Known as Tipoff U.S./Canada — or TUSCAN — it serves as a form of no-fly list. Only this one is easier to be added to and harder to get removed from.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is playing with fire. Depending on what happens in the next few months, that fire could consume Smith, her Alberta United Conservative Party government, the province of Alberta, and Canada as we know it today. As premier of Alberta, Smith is trying to play the dangerous game of appeasing the separatist movement in the province while...
What an awfully nice, careful people we are. So reluctant to cause offence, even when someone spits in our collective eye. The tiny group of Alberta separatists, who are openly seeking support from a hostile Trump administration to break up the country are, at least in a political sense, spitting in our eye. They boast about meeting with U.S. officials...
CONSERVATIVE DELEGATES’ resounding show of support for Pierre Poilievre’s leadership in Calgary is more interesting than a more tentative vote would have been. The way people talk about Poilievre in Ottawa and Toronto, including a lot of long-time Conservatives, suggests they think he’s trying to be like Prime Minister Mark Carney, and he’s bad at it. The weekend’s events in...
The unveiling of Stephen Harper’s official parliamentary portrait has provided a moment of unexpected catharsis in Canadian politics. Speaking at an event hosted by the Royal Canadian Geographic Society this week, the former prime minister said there is a tendency in Canada to focus on past mistakes, at the expense of pride in the country’s achievements. The same might be...
As Conservatives celebrate the 20th anniversary of Stephen Harper’s first election victory this week, there’s a lot of chatter about what Pierre Poilievre can learn from his success. In 2006, Mr. Harper captured 36 per cent of the popular vote, and won. In 2025, Mr. Poilievre was a far better vote-getter, earning 41 per cent of the popular vote –...
Another week, another great big beautiful ask from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. This time, she is demanding a say in federal judicial appointments and is threatening to withhold some provincial funding to help pay for them if Prime Minister Mark Carney says no
I first crossed paths with Stephen Harper in the late 1990s, but only briefly. I had just been elected as a Progressive Conservative, and he had by then moved on from a term in Parliament as a Reform MP to lead the National Citizens Coalition. He remained visible on the Hill due to his significant role in building the Reform...
Suppose there were a country, let’s call it Outlandia, that declared its intent to annex Canada – to take over its territory and subject its people to its rule – if not by military means, certainly by economic. Now suppose a group of fellow travellers within Canada offered to assist Outlandia with its hostile takeover. Nothing violent, mind you, but...
Just before the ceremony in downtown Ottawa in which Stephen Harper’s official portrait as Prime Minister would be unveiled on Tuesday afternoon, huge screens all around the room displayed a more ephemeral photo record of his time in office. The images highlighted what must have been most meaningful to him about that 2006-2015 chapter: the far north, the Canadian military...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had a pretty good convention. It seems to have been a well-organized affair, competently pulled off. Poilievre’s speech was well received, and he certainly has nothing to complain about regarding the 87-plus per cent support he got from party members for his continued leadership. So yeah. It’s mostly good news. But the man is facing some...
Credit to Pierre Poilievre: he worked hard to retain the leadership of the Conservative Party, and was rewarded with more than 87-per-cent support of those who attended the Calgary convention last weekend. Like the political opponent he long battled against—former prime minister Justin Trudeau—Poilievre has shown he is a political fighter. True, there were no current challengers for his job...
Alberta's sport minister says he hasn't signed his name to a petition that seeks to force a referendum on the province quitting Canada. Andrew Boitchenko says he and Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party government are focused on strengthening Alberta's position within Canada. Boitchenko's comment comes after a leader for the group organizing the separatist petition said some unnamed members...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is calling on China to release Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai after he was sentenced to 20 years in jail today under a sweeping national security law. Canada joins numerous peers, including the United States and the European Union, in condemning Beijing for the sentence imposed under a law used to crack down on Hong...
Canada’s Arctic is one of the most exposed places on the planet, where communications routinely fail — satellites fade, cellular networks vanish, hardware freezes. Those problems led Ottawa-based Dominion Dynamics to build AuraNet, a software layer tied to rugged sensors that can push high-definition video, photos and audio through the frontier’s dead zones, allowing military commanders to swiftly assess threats...
The new submarines Canada plans to buy will not arrive with all the necessary equipment to operate under Arctic ice, meaning they will require modifications after delivery, the head of the navy says. Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee said Canada will need to add under-ice gear to the boats after they arrive, such as upward-facing sonar that can detect and map overhead...
The GM plant in Oshawa often feels like a mythical place. Long-time residents in the region tell stories of a time when it was a hub of prosperity for tens of thousands of families. They say, when shifts would end, there were so many GM employees that some roads would become one-way streets so workers could drive home in an...
Nearly all Alberta Conservative MPs are declining to comment on the province's separation talk, saying they do not want to give it more oxygen, and don't want to undermine Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's chances of forming government in the next election. Pollsters say the issue should be taken very seriously. Most Alberta Conservative MPs aren’t talking publicly about a push...
The Opposition Conservatives are calling on the federal Liberal government to reduce taxes on severance packages for laid-off General Motors workers in Ingersoll, Ont. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre penned a letter Sunday, co-signed by labour critic Kyle Seeback and local MP Arpan Khanna, addressed to Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne calling for an exemption to the withholding taxes that ding severance...
Report suggests alliances will require sustained work to survive. Almost every foreign diplomat you run across lately simply gushes about Prime Minister Mark Carney's Davos speech, and how his remarks about middle powers banding together went viral in Europe. As much as the speech represented a wake-up call for Canada and its allies, a new report that sets up the...
The Canadian military has destroyed 2,000 Second World War pistols but is still waiting to hear from Ukraine on whether it wants the rest of the guns for its arsenal. The latest update from the Department of National Defence on the fate of the Browning Hi-Power pistols reveals a topsy-turvy strategy for the aging handguns. In October 2022, the Canadian...
Elly Alboim, a former CBC parliamentary bureau chief, longtime political consultant and professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, has died at 78, his family tells CBC News. Alboim joined the CBC in 1970 and worked at the broadcaster for more than two decades. In 1977, he became parliamentary bureau chief and national political editor for the network — a job he held until 1993.
Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media tycoon and a fierce critic of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in one of the most prominent cases prosecuted under a China-imposed national security law that has virtually silenced the city's dissent.
Former cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland says when it comes to the U.S. and its relationships with other countries on the world stage, it needs to "get their act together." Since his 2025 inauguration, U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened several countries, including Canada, with annexation and tariffs on goods, creating an ongoing trade war. Freeland, fresh off her January resignation...
Jamil Jivani’s solo mission to Washington has provoked confusion and consternation among some of his Conservative colleagues who want to avoid the party looking cozy with Donald Trump’s administration. Jivani, a friend of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance since they attended Yale Law School together, paid a visit to Vance’s office in what he described as an attempt to “build bridges”...
Amid a year-long trade war, Canada’s outgoing ambassador to the United States says she doesn’t know whether U.S. President Donald Trump hopes to keep the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) in place, because his messaging around the deal has been inconsistent.
On a packed bullet train heading towards Seoul, the face of Stephen Fuhr, Canada’s secretary of state for defence procurement, suddenly appeared on monitors in each of the 18 train cars. In a four-minute news story, Fuhr was shown touring Hanwha’s shipyard in Geoje, along with more than 20 Canadian CEOs along for a trade mission. Over two days, the...
'No patience for separatist blackmail,' says former Liberal minister Stéphane Dion. Former Liberal cabinet minister Stéphane Dion is lambasting the brewing separatist movement in Alberta and demanding that Premier Danielle Smith clarify her position and lay out the next steps depending on the outcome of a possible independence referendum. "I have no patience for separatist blackmail," Dion said in an...
An electronic petition on the parliament website calls on the House of Commons to require all federal party leaders to obtain and maintain top-secret security clearance. It says the reason is to ensure leaders are "fully informed of threats to Canada's national security" and "act decisively to protect Canadians and our democracy." The petition notes Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre...
Rob Lantz will become the next premier of Prince Edward Island after winning the Conservative party leadership race today.
While both Danish and Greenlandic leaders cite progress in diplomatic talks with the United States, they also suggest there is a long road ahead. “We are not out of the crisis, and we do not have a solution yet,” Denmark’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Saturday. Rasmussen said initial diplomatic meetings with the U.S. have taken place and...
NUUK -- Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand wrapped up her trip to Greenland and Denmark today, vowing to continue a focus on economic ties, shared heritage, Arctic security and defence.
The Ontario Liberal Party says it will select a new leader on Nov. 21, an announcement that kicks off its third leadership race since 2020. Several politicians, both provincially and federally, have been weighing bids and assembling teams in the background but have been waiting for the date and rules of the upcoming leadership race before making any official announcements...
Not even a week after Pierre Poilievre's resounding victory at the leadership review vote in Calgary, the Conservative leader found himself struggling. Why? Because he seemed offside on strategy with the often referred to "Godfather" of his party, Stephen Harper. It was a big week for Harper as he was in Ottawa to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his first...
The federal government says it is making more than $1 billion available to Canada Post in the form of a repayable loan to help the beleaguered Crown corporation remain solvent and keep its services running. The $1.01 billion would be provided as needed and is described as a short-term financial bridge. The new sum is in addition to $1.03 billion...
“Inuit are one people” is a message heard from Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit in and around the opening of the new Canadian consulate in Nuuk, and it’s amplified coming from Governor General Mary Simon. Simon says Canadian Inuit are in Nuuk to show their support to the Greenlandic Inuit. She says as an Inuit person herself, her personal relationship with...
Kirsten Hillman hasn't written her autobiography yet, but the 57-year-old career diplomat -- soon to be Canada's former ambassador to the U.S. -- may already have a title picked out: "Diplomacy is a contact sport." One glance at her CV tells you why. She has been the underdog staring down centre ice as the world's largest economy looks to tear...
Former U.S. president Joe Biden’s top national security official says that while Canada-U.S. relations will have to evolve given the current U.S. president’s trade actions and threats, a deep and sustained relationship moving forward is in both countries’ interests. Jake Sullivan, who served as Biden’s national security advisor from 2021-2025, joined CTV’s Question Period for an interview reflecting on Prime...
Climate experts say emission rules still need to be worked out — and automakers hold much power. Despite widespread approval from provinces and auto manufacturers, Prime Minister Mark Carney's auto plan might not accelerate the transition to electric vehicles as fast as he says. On Thursday, Carney ended Canada's electric vehicle mandate, resumed purchase incentives and said higher standards for...
With federal Conservatives preparing to be ready for an election as soon as this spring, one outstanding question the party must answer is where party leader Pierre Poilievre will run. The party has said it is launching its candidate nomination process and calls have also begun to past candidates, with a view to being ready by
U.S. President Donald Trump’s racist social media post featuring former U.S. president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle was deleted Friday after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who criticized the video as offensive. Trump said later Friday that he won’t apologize for the post. “I didn’t make a mistake,” he said. The...
China's top court has overturned the death sentence for accused Canadian drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian official told CBC News. The Supreme People's Court struck down the lower court's sentence on Friday. The source requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The New York Times first reported the news. Schellenberg had been found guilty...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, declined to answer questions from House lawmakers in a deposition Monday, but indicated that if President Donald Trump ended her prison sentence, she was willing to testify that neither he nor former President Bill Clinton had done anything wrong in their relationships with Epstein.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers tried Monday to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, but the former girlfriend and confidante of Jeffrey Epstein invoked her 5th Amendment rights to avoid answering questions that would be incriminating.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Beyond the car windows being smashed, people tackled on city streets -- or even a little child with a floppy bunny ears snowcap detained -- the images of masked federal officers has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump wants to keep home prices high, bypassing calls to ramp up construction so people can afford what has been a ticket to the middle class.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is calling on China to release Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai after he was sentenced to 20 years in jail today under a sweeping national security law. Canada joins numerous peers, including the United States and the European Union, in condemning Beijing for the sentence imposed under a law used to crack down on Hong...
Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media tycoon and a fierce critic of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in one of the most prominent cases prosecuted under a China-imposed national security law that has virtually silenced the city's dissent.
Former cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland says when it comes to the U.S. and its relationships with other countries on the world stage, it needs to "get their act together." Since his 2025 inauguration, U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened several countries, including Canada, with annexation and tariffs on goods, creating an ongoing trade war. Freeland, fresh off her January resignation...
While both Danish and Greenlandic leaders cite progress in diplomatic talks with the United States, they also suggest there is a long road ahead. “We are not out of the crisis, and we do not have a solution yet,” Denmark’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Saturday. Rasmussen said initial diplomatic meetings with the U.S. have taken place and...
Kirsten Hillman hasn't written her autobiography yet, but the 57-year-old career diplomat -- soon to be Canada's former ambassador to the U.S. -- may already have a title picked out: "Diplomacy is a contact sport." One glance at her CV tells you why. She has been the underdog staring down centre ice as the world's largest economy looks to tear...
Since the legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in 2016, the federal government has created certain safeguards and regulatory mechanisms – including data collection – to ensure that people don’t request death because they lack access to care, including palliative care.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s widely praised speech last week in Davos was most notable for its frankness in admitting the hypocrisy behind Western support for a selectively enforced “rules-based international order.” But it also pulled no punches in calling out the coercive measures that great powers — including the United States — are increasingly employing to advance their interests.
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
The head of Ottawa’s public service got an earful from the federal information commissioner about the dismal state of access to information – the sign of a growing rift between the Liberal government and Parliament’s watchdog on transparency. At a Nov. 12 meeting, Caroline Maynard presented Michael Sabia, clerk of the Privy Council, with statistics detailing the deterioration of the...
The RCMP has handed out 23 awards for excellence to officers and employees in Nova Scotia for their performance during the April 2020 mass murders, in which a gunman impersonating a Mountie murdered 22 people in cold blood.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) gets a lot of flak for its processing of Access to Information Act (ATIA) requests, especially for its long delays to respond. But lately they’ve been doing a few things right.
It’s setting off alarm bells in the White House for good reason: Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new “strategic partnership” with Beijing is bigger than just the diversification and freeing up of trade in Canadian food exports and Chinese electric vehicles that he claims. As Brian discusses with longtime China-watcher Sandra Watson Parcels, there are details of the pact that haven’t...
In a bid to help Canadians afford lower-emission vehicles, Ottawa unveiled a new EV strategy last week. Prime Minister Carney scrapped the Trudeau-era EV sale mandate, instead introducing rebates for customers and new emission standards for manufacturers.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled the government's new auto strategy – which pulls the plug on the EV sales mandate, but includes measures to encourage Canadians to buy EVs and companies to build and sell those cars here. Host Catherine Cullen asks Industry Minister Mélanie Joly why taxpayers should continue to spend money to help automakers. Then, auto industry...
Not even a week after Pierre Poilievre's resounding victory at the leadership review vote in Calgary, the Conservative leader found himself struggling. Why? Because he seemed offside on strategy with the often referred to "Godfather" of his party, Stephen Harper. It was a big week for Harper as he was in Ottawa to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his first...
